ANTHONY JAMES / FABULISM FORT GANSEVOORT 5 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY, 10014
On View: Thursday May 18 – Saturday, July 8 Opening Reception: Thursday, May 18, 6-9pm
New York – May 11, 2017: Fort Gansevoort is pleased to present Fabulism, the first New York solo project in over a decade of British-born, Los Angeles-based artist Anthony James. The exhibition will stage a selection of older works mounted in dialogue with a new body of sculpture in an effort to reflect upon the dynamics of continuity and change within the artist’s practice.
The exhibition title speaks to the artist’s interest in elevating ordinary materials through experimentation and transformation. Fabulism, the literary theory of magical realism— which renders the mundane fantastical—is a preoccupation of the artist. The exhibition is curated by Lauri Firstenberg in collaboration with there-there, a new Los Angeles based production company and exhibition space.
James debuts his new series of Shields, rendered in steel and bronze, which are highly worked surfaces through a laborious process of painting and additive gestures of refined and subtle metal work. James’s work operates elusively, staggering between the iconic and the arbitrary, the concrete and the alchemic, the mythical and experiential.
The artist reveals, "the works evoke pictorial depictions of the cosmos, alluding to notions of mysticism, ethereality, and science fiction, all the while anchored through the use of weighty, industrial materials such as metal and neon." The objects read as relics or artifacts from some liminal moment. As such, James attempts to locate beauty in the wake of insanity.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Anthony James (b.1974) is a British born, LA based multi-media artist. He studied at Central St. Martins School of Art and Design in London before moving to New York in 1998. His body of work is invested in minimalism, materiality, process, experimentation, alchemy, language, and the relationship between object making and questioning the universe. Though the work is informed by a personal, popular, and art historical archive, James aims at making work that is non-referential. The questions that emerge from this personal exploration focus on infinity, life, death, and rebirth.
James has exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at Patrick Painter in Los Angeles, Gavlak in West Palm Beach, Walter Storms Galerie in Munich, and Brand New Gallery in Milan, among others. James’ work can be seen in private and public collections across Europe and North America including the Seagram Building and General Electric Building in New York, as well as the Istanbul Modern Museum of Art. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
ABOUT FORT GANSEVOORT
Organized by cofounder Adam Shopkorn and Carolyn Tate Angel, Fort Gansevoort Gallery is a platform for experimentation and collaboration that exhibits emerging and established artists whose practices bridge relationships between old, new, high, and low culture.
Fort Gansevoort is located at 5 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY, 10014.
ABOUT there - there
Founded as a partnership between artist Anthony James and curator Lauri Firstenberg, in collaboration with developer Cyrus Etemad, there-there is a new production company positioned as a platform to produce exhibitions, films and editions in order to promote ongoing collaborations with local and international artists. there-there will open its Los Angeles hub in Spring 2017, followed with the inauguration of its ambitious programming schedule in September 2017.
Pictured above: Anthony James, Matte Black Series (Nos. 1-4), 2016. Steel and bronze. © Anthony James Studio. Photo courtesy the artist. ###
Media Contact: Ellie Hayworth Third Eye [email protected] / 786.302.8557
Sales Inquiries: Adam Shopkorn Fort Gansevoort [email protected] / 917. 359.5004